Korean pianists are so nice about each other
NewsUnlike Lang Lang and his fellow-Chinese, the leading South Korean pianists take pride in the success of others.
This is Seong-Jin Cho, winner of the 2015 Chopin competition, taling about Yunchan Lim, the latest Cliburn winner:
‘We haven’t met yet, but I am so proud of Yunchan. Of course, I am rooting for him! And I’m so pleased that Korean musicians are now recognized in the world – not only pianists, but so many others, like Inmo Yang, winner of the 2022 Sibelius violin competition, and Hayoung Choi, the cellist who won the 2022 Queen Elisabeth competition. It was, of course, a privilege and an honor to win the Chopin, but that is a third of your life. But yes, I’m really proud, and I’m really rooting for Yunchan!’
From a new interview with Elijah Ho, here.
Musicians rooting for each other is kind of a rare thing in today’s competitive world. Good for them.
1) Why are you comparing the Chinese to the Koreans, because they are Asians? Do you see Russians complimenting each other? Or the Germans?
2) Plus, the Koreans haven’t reached a level of fame or even career advancement NOT to NOT compliment each other. Wait til they start competing for the same concert dates with the same orchestras at the same venues…
Time that Mem got up to date. For his/her information, Korean pianists and their agents already compete for international concert dates and recordings – in the sense that international orchestras and concert promoters happily engage them just as they do top musicians from other countries. He/she will no doubt be surprised that they achieve a lot of success around the world.
Korea and Koreans are fabulous and there are some wonderful Korean musicians.
However, the Lang Lang jibe was gratuitous. I guess you’re talking about Yundi Li – do you have some actual evidence of Lang Lang criticising him?
Lang lang interview: http://ent.sina.com.cn/y/2006-08-07/07091189121.html
Translation by google:
“His (referring to Li Yundi) level is not the same as mine, and I have traveled a much longer way abroad than him. I don’t really want to attack anyone, I don’t want to say that I’ve played at Carnegie Hall, with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony, the Big Five, and he hasn’t. But if a reporter asks, I must say that his career is just at the beginning. Although he won the competition, it does not mean that he is a professional pianist. If he wins, he can be unknown. ”
Original in Chinese:
他（指李云迪）档次跟我不太一样，我在国外走的路比他长得多。我不太愿意攻击任何人，我不想说我曾在卡耐基礼堂演出，跟柏林爱乐管弦乐团、维也纳交响乐团、美国五大交响乐团合作，而他没有。但如果有记者问，我必须讲，他的事业只是刚起步，虽是赢了比赛，赢了不等于就是专业钢琴家，赢了也可以籍籍无名。
And this is how Lang lang managed his piano business: http://www.scena.org/columns/lebrecht/081112-nl-power.html (Thanks to Mr Norman Lebrecht)
“One manager was told by Lang Lang’s father than his son would not play with his orchestra if his arch-rival Yundi Li was engaged in the same year. Yundi, winner of the 2000 Chopin competition in Warsaw and an artist of significantly quieter attributes, appears to gone into retreat, moving his residence to offshore Hong Kong.”
It is a shame that Lang lang’s team has utilized Chinese social media to smash Yundi Li for the past 20 years. A joke: One Lang lang team manager forgot to switch to other account and posted that Yundi never graduated from college and bribed his way to win the Chopin competition. http://yue.ifeng.com/yp/detail_2014_01/16/33082638_0.shtml
Chinese original:
“音乐世界黄铮是郎朗团队的，他发微博说李云迪没毕业，没资格做川音院长。”
Correction that the contents in the link had the part “Li did no graduate from college” and did not include the part “bribed the way to win Chopin competition”. There are different versions and such rumors were all over the place along with many others regarding Yundi Li.
Proud? Cho is using that as an excuse to remind people he won the Chopin. But yes, they are all extremely fine musicians.
In China, I think Lang Lang sees every Chinese pianist as a supposed threat to his money status.
And frankly, there is NO comparison between Korean and Chinese pianists. Korean pianists are SO much better. China have yet to produce a single pianist on the same artistic level as Cho or Lim. And no, please spare me: Yuja isn’t one of them.
Laurie McManus, this is getting tiring. Stick to your favourite pianists Trifonov and Cho, by all means. Just know that plenty of conductors, composers, star soloists of other instruments disagree with you.
If anyone asks how I know who she is: 70% of the bitchy comments written about Yuja Wang on the internet came from the same source, and she has a very recognizable style. The vast majority of people who don’t like her simply lose interest and no longer comment on her, which is what normal people do.
Ok I’m now actually curious – who is Laurie McManus? This is the third time you’ve called me Laurie now and I’d love to know who he/she/they/it is.
Perhaps it’s a very subtle literary reference that only the big brained trolls like you would get.
Dragging Yuja into this for Cho and Lim to be compared against is not going to do them any favors. It just shows two things: 1. There is always some element of truth about the stereotypes. 2. Stereotypes are gross generalizations.
In my experience Koreans tend to behave differently than Chinese in science, too. I said tend, don’t accuse me of prejudice or sweeping generalizations.
Korean pianists aren’t only nice to each other. And trust me, so aren’t the white pianists.
Or maybe they just have good publicists? Surely one doesn’t just take interviews as gospel truth?
Indeed. A propos the comments above re Lang Lang’s supposed dissing of Yundi Li – LL strongly denies it.
Anyway, isn’t poor old Yundi languishing in a Chinese gaol apparently for going to prostitutes? Not sure if that’s true or whether he spoke out against the regime or criticised some high ranking official and the prostitute charge is false.
An ugly yet honest interview (Like Lang lang’s) is not a sin. However the behind scene business conducts and rumors by Lang lang’s team were malicious and way below the moral line.
As for Yundi, his 2021 case was most likely framed due to his refusal to collaborate with the government on certain matters. The set up was absurd:
– a 29 year old prostitute whose only business is with Yundi (per Beijing police record)
– public announcement made on the final day of Chopin competition
– CCP party declaration of “Those with sins must die” regarding Yundi
– along with the side evidence from FBI’s investigation in Mar 2022 and CCP party’s long history of granting such blame to “problematic” people (e.g. Professors from Tsinghua Univ, free-lance writers, etc).
Many believe that Yundi was innocent (Including me). His recent “comeback” video on President Jiang’s death got thousands of comments in couple of hours.
Hope he survives.
You are idiot in believing he’s innocent. Not that it’s matters that he use prostitutes. He made enough money in China in pop reality scenes. As a pianist, he has long lost his glare and need to organize his own tour as no major serious music organization is willingly to engage him due to his past lack of professionalism, e.g show up unprepared.
Lang Lang isn’t even very good. He is all flash and no substance. I heard him live once and the performance was ostentatious and full of wrong notes all played with a very unpleasant, banging tone.
“Unlike Lang Lang and his fellow-Chinese, the leading South Korean pianists take pride in the success of others.”
Please explain this statement.
Why shouldn’t we be supportive of each other? We all have something to share, different voices, all for the betterment of the world. We’re not here for a long time, so we’re all in this brief time together. I like seeing this comradry among the young generations.
He’s glad Koreans are “now” recognized? Guess he never heard of the Chung family from 50 years ago…..
What absolute class and, of course, South Korea is a nation which punches way above its weight. The communists dislike that intensely.
I am reminded that Emil Gilels told American reporters “oh, but wait until you hear Richter.”
The Korean boy who won the recent Cliburn was exceptional. To me- the rest sound monochromatic.
Re the LL/Yundi rivalry, I know directly from a senior official involved in the engagement of international artists for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games (and I have written this here in an earlier thread), one segment was to have involved 8 Chinese pianists including LL/Y. When LL learned of this, he refused to take part with other pianists, especially Y. End result was LL appeared only with a young girl.
Since another poster had brought up the Y prostitute affair, there is much discussion in greater China that this could have been a ploy to counter discussion of his presumed homosexuality. There is also much on the internet about his affair with the classical music-loving Taiwan mega pop-star Wang Lee-hom. They have long been labeled “Hongdi”. Wang once conducted the HK Philharmonic. When their relationship became public about ten years ago, Wang soon married and had 3 children. He filed for divorce last year.
It was believed that Y became so fixated on all the publicity appearing about Hongdi that it affected his performances. In November 2015 he had a disastrous concert in Seoul during a Sydney Symphony Asian tour. He must know the Chopin 1st Concerto backwards, but he had memory lapses and made error after error, resulting in conductor David Robinson having to stop and pause before resuming. The Korea Times called his performance “calamitous” and “appalling”.
This is all desperately sad for a very fine pianist who once seemed to have the international music world at his feet.
It does seem that the young crop of excellent Korean pianists are likely to be far more adjusted to international careers than LL and Yundi.
Thanks for your insider scoops here. I feel sorry when I read the part ” a very fine pianist”. RE the other comments about “China have yet to produce a single pianist on the same artistic level as Cho or Lim.”, some of us still remember Yundi for sure. Best wishes for Yundi.
So confused…why the comparison of Korean pianists to Chinese pianists in the first place? Is there some kind of special link between these two groups I don’t know about?
The comparison is no occident.